Sanskrit prosody
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_prosody Gaṇa Gaṇa (Sanskrit, "group") is the technical term for the pattern of light and heavy syllables in a sequence of three. It is used in treatises on Sanskrit prosody to describe metres, according to a method first propounded in Pingala's chandahsutra. Pingala organizes the metres using two units:Pingala CS 1.9-10, in order :* l': a "light" syllable (L), called ''laghu :* '''g: a "heavy" syllable (H), called guru Pingala's method described any metre as a sequence of gaṇa's, or triplets of syllables (trisyllabic feet), plus the excess, if any, as single units. There being eight possible patterns of light and heavy syllables in a sequence of three, Pingala associated a letter, allowing the metre to be described compactly as an acronym.Pingala, ''chandaḥśāstra, 1.1-10 Each of these has its Greek prosody equivalent as listed below. ||Tribrach |-style="text-align: center;" ! style="background: #ffad66;" |Ma-gaṇa | H-H-H || — — — || || Molossus |-style="text-align: center;" ! style="background: #ffad66;" |Ja-gaṇa | L-H-L || u — u || || Amphibrach |-style="text-align: center;" ! style="background: #ffad66;" |Ra-gaṇa | H-L-H || — u — || || Cretic |-style="text-align: center;" ! style="background: #ffad66;" |Bha-gaṇa | H-L-L || — u u || || Dactyl |-style="text-align: center;" ! style="background: #ffad66;" |Sa-gaṇa | L-L-H || u u — || || Anapaest |-style="text-align: center;" ! style="background: #ffad66;" |Ya-gaṇa | L-H-H || u — — || || Bacchius |-style="text-align: center;" ! style="background: #ffad66;" |Ta-gaṇa | H-H-L || — — u || || Antibacchius |} Pingala's order of the gaṇas, viz. '''m-y-r-s-t-j-bh-n, corresponds to a standard enumeration in binary, when the three syllables in each gaṇa are read right-to-left with H=0 and L=1. A mnemonic The word yamātārājabhānasalagāḥ (or yamātārājabhānasalagaṃ) is a mnemonic for Pingala's gaṇas, developed by ancient commentators, using the vowels "a" and "ā" for light and heavy syllables respectively with the letters of his scheme. In the form without a grammatical ending, yamātārājabhānasalagā is self-descriptive, where the structure of each gaṇa is shown by its own syllable and the two following it:Coulson, p.253ff * ya-gaṇa: ya-mā-tā = L-H-H * ma-gaṇa: mā-tā-rā = H-H-H * ta-gaṇa: tā-rā-ja = H-H-L * ra-gaṇa: rā-ja-bhā = H-L-H * ja-gaṇa: ja-bhā-na = L-H-L * bha-gaṇa: bhā-na-sa = H-L-L * na-gaṇa: na-sa-la = L-L-L * sa-gaṇa: sa-la-gā = L-L-H The mnemonic also encodes the light "la" and heavy "gā" unit syllables of the full scheme. The truncated version obtained by dropping the last two syllables, viz. yamātārājabhānasa, can be read cyclically (i.e., wrapping around to the front). It is an example of a De Bruijn sequence. . Reprinted in Wardhaugh, Benjamin, ed. (2012), A Wealth of Numbers: An Anthology of 500 Years of Popular Mathematics Writing, Princeton Univ. Press, pp. 139–144. Comparison with Greek and Latin prosody Sanskrit prosody shares similarities with Greek and Latin prosody. For example, in all three, rhythm is determined from the amount of time needed to pronounce a syllable, and not on stress (quantitative metre). Each eight syllable line, for instance in the Rigveda, is approximately equivalent to the Greek iambic dimeter. The sacred Gayatri metre of the Hindus consists of three of such iambic dimeter lines, and this embedded metre alone is at the heart of about 25% of the entire Rigveda. The gaṇas are, however, not the same as the foot in Greek prosody. The metrical unit in Sanskrit prosody is the verse (line, pada), while in Greek prosody it is the foot.A history of Sanskrit Literature, Arthur MacDonell, Oxford University Press/Appleton & Co, page 55 Sanskrit prosody allows elasticity similar to Latin Saturnian verse, uncustomary in Greek prosody. The principles of both Sanskrit and Greek prosody probably go back to Proto-Indo-European times, because similar principles are found in ancient Persian, Italian, Celtic, and Slavonic branches of Indo-European.